Page 37 of Her Tempting Traitor
“There is no need to question it, my boy,” Aunt Zilphia said in a rough voice, then cleared her throat and focused on loading up her plate with an overabundance of sweets. “You are a fine man, and our Artemesia recognized that. Dickie and I are delighted to have you in our lives.”
“Once I was, perhaps,” Cassian muttered, and it wasn’t until Gus nudged him that he realized he’d said it out loud, and raised a brow in question.
His son shook his head earnestly. “Just because you’re missing half a leg doesn’t make you a bad man, Father. You heard what Miss Gabby said. You don’t evenneeda fibula.”
Lost for words, Cassian instinctively met Gabby’s midnight eyes. She was watching him intently, and Cassian suddenly had the thought that his next words would be judged as harshly as he was. “I ken it doesnae make me abadman, lad.” His words were for his son, but his attention was on her. “But…sometimes I feel like half a man.”
“You’ve worked hard to be able to walk again,” Gus announced firmly, his brow puckered and his gaze fierce. “And Miss Gabby is an expert, you should trust her. Do you know that when she was a little girl, she had a cat who was run over by a carriage and lost a leg?”
Cassian glanced at his son, but felt his gaze returning toher as his voice dropped low. “I didnae ken that, Gus. Did the cat survive?”
Gabby’s chin dropped and she looked away, her cheeks turning a delicious shade of pink that made him want to taste her again?—
Shite, stop thinking of it. Getting a cockstand at tea is going to be fooking inconvenient.
“Oh yes,” Gus continued, oblivious to the tension between his father and his newest friend. “She’s ever so good with injuries, she says, and she healed the cat and taught him to walk again, just like you’ve learned to walk without a cane sometimes. You should have her look at your leg and make sure you’re walking properly.”
Good with my hands.
That’s what Gabby had said the very first day they’d met, when she’d fallen into his arms.
Now she toasted him with her tea, the slightest tilt of her head telling him she agreed with his son. “Walking, riding, even running?—”
“Riding!” Gus exclaimed, bouncing lightly on the sofa at his side. “I could help you with that, Father!”
He…wantedto spend time with Cassian? Trying not to appear too eager and frighten the lad off, Cassian nodded. “I…I would like that,” he managed roughly. “I can manage a horse, but no’ as well as I once did.”
“Tomorrow morning?” Gus demanded eagerly, and Cassian could only nod mutely, overwhelmed with the offer and his son’s enthusiasm.
“Oh, that is a wonderful idea, lad!” Aunt Zilphia announced, clapping her hands together. “Cassian,doallow Gabby to help you!”So she thinks massaging a man’s naked leg is acceptable for an unmarried woman, but no’ talking about pregnancy?“If she could heal her pussy, she could help you!”
Only fifteen years of undercover work allowed him to keep his expression neutral, although Gabby choked on her tea.
Gus, on the other, was nodding eagerly. “You said your leg was tight, right? Well, I helped her massage Catherine’s leg?—”
“That is Dickie’s favorite armadillo,” supplied Aunt Zilphia helpfully.
“—and Miss Gabby did a brilliant job. She walked so much better after it. Oh, please say she can work on you?”
Helplessly, Cassian glanced between his eager son and the blushing woman staring into her tea. “I…” He cleared his throat. “If Miss Gabby could work her magic on my mangled leg, I would welcome her expertise.”
And her touch.
A flash of dark blue from beneath auburn lashes told him she’d heard the unspoken words too.
Gus, on the other hand, was still bouncing enthusiastically like the child he still was. “And if the massage doesn’t work, you could always just ask her to regrow your foot.”
Vaguely he heard Aunt Zilphia suck in a breath, but Cassian was already rounding, incredulous, on his son. “What?” He shook his head. “Humans cannae regrow feet, Gus. They’re no’ frogs or something. Wait, do frogs regrowtheir legs? Is that why we keep eating them? Is there a frog-leg-harvesting scheme going on someplace?”
“Probably France,” Zilphia offered. “That seems like something the French would do.”
“I believe you are thinking of salamanders.” Was Gabby’s hand shaking slightly as she replaced her cup on the saucer? “They can regenerate limbs.”
But Gus was shaking his head seriously. “Imeant, Miss Gabby has a piece of magic lace that can heal one person if you burn it and make a wish on it—so if you really, really wanted your foot back, you could burn it and wish real hard and your foot would come back. Then you would feel whole again and you wouldn’t be scared about having to leave me.”
Cassian stared.
Dimly, he was aware the two women were staring too, but he couldn’t tear his incredulous gaze away from his son to confirm it. Gus’s fingers were entwined tightly in front of him, and there was adesperationon his wee face that Cassian had never seen before.
